About the Book

This book examines the fate of post-Soviet press freedom and media culture in the context of the growing impact of globalisation. To understand the complicated situation that has arisen with respect to these issues in post-Soviet space is impossible without collaboration between political scientists, sociologists, cultural analysts, media studies researchers and media practitioners. The book is one of the first attempts to bridge the gaps between political and cultural studies approaches, between textual analysis and audience research, as well as between practitioner-led and scholarly approaches to the post-Soviet media The cumulative impact of the essays contained in this section is to reinforce the intuition which inspired it: that the post-Soviet media remain a highly heterogeneous, complex and dynamic field for investigation. With contributions from scholars and journalists across Europe (including the former Soviet Union), the collection addresses such issues as censorship and elections, the legacy of the Soviet past, terrorism and the media, the post-Soviet business press, advertising and nation building, official press discourse and entrepreneurship, and global formats on Russian television.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

Table of Contents

The Struggle for Press Freedom in Russia: Reflections of a Russian Journalist Nadezhda Azhgikhina

The Next General Elections in Russia: What Role for the Media? Daphne Skillen

The Neo-Soviet Model of the Media Sarah Oates

Mass Media and the Information Climate in Russia Hedwig de Smaele

The Local and the International in Russian Business Journalism: Structures and Practices Katja Koikkalainen

Official Media Discourse and the Self-Representation of Entrepreneurs in Belarus Galina Miazhevich

The Image of the Terrorist Threat in the Official Russian Press: the Moscow Theatre Crisis (2002) and the Beslan Hostage Crisis (2004) Aglaya Snetkov

Domesticating the Western Format on Russian TV: Subversive Glocalisation in the Game Show Pole Chudes (The Field of Miracles) Natalia Rulyova

Drinking to the Nation: Russian Television Advertising and Cultural Differentiation Jeremy Morris

About the Editors

Birgit Beumers is Reader in Russian at the University of Bristol. She specialises on contemporary Russian culture, especially cinema and theatre. She is editor of KinoKultura (online) and of Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema. She is currently working on a Leverhulme-funded project that investigates Russian animation.

Stephen Hutchings has a Chair in Russian Studies at the University of Manchester, having previously been Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Surrey, UK, and Associate Professor of Russian at the University of Rochester, New York.

Natalia Rulyova is a lecturer in Russian at the University of Birmingham, having previously worked as temporary Lecturer and Research Fellow on the AHRC-funded project Post-Soviet Television Culture led by Professor Hutchings at the University of Surrey, UK.

About the Series

The Routledge Europe-Asia Studies Series focuses on the history and current political, social and economic affairs of the countries of the former ‘communist bloc’ of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Asia. As well as providing contemporary analyses it explores the economic, political and social transformation of these countries and the changing character of their relationships with the rest of Europe and Asia.